HomeARC ML 2462
THE APPEAL OF THE WORLD ON OUR TEENS!--A Lesson-filled History of Dad's Youth! DO 2462 7/88
1. They call these guys "cool" that are rather sophisticated & have had a lot of Worldly experience, but I call'm not-so-hot! All it took with me was a good taste of public school to make me absolutely hate it! I hated the kind of people that were there & hated the whole thing except the educational part. (Maria: I don't know if all of our kids have hated it, they don't act like it.) I don't think they have been in public school! (Maria: Surprisingly enough, a lot of our teens have been in public school, & that's one reason why they're so Worldly. Whether they hated it or not, or whether they liked it, the fact remains that many of them were very adversely affected by it.)
2. I never liked any of the Worldly kids that I met in public school! I never had any friends. They were all abominable, abhorrent, as far as I was concerned, they were all horrible, terrible kids! A few of the girls acted a little bit nice but I never really got very well acquainted with them. The nice ones didn't mix with the boys much. (Maria: I didn't have very many friends at school either, maybe just one special friend.)
3. I never had one single friend in school that I can ever remember at any grade level! I was a real loner! I just was not one of them! They hated me & I hated them & I wasn't a bit like them. They were nearly all little devils, especially the boys. I never had much to do with the girls. (Maria: Maybe the area where I was from was a little more Christian, I had a good Baptist girlfriend when I was in about 7th or 8th grade, who was a real witnessing Christian.)
4. In all my years in public school I don't think I ever met one single real Christian, ever! About the only person I can remember who really befriended me, who was actually being friendly & kind & nice to me was this little Jewish girl in office practice class who used to try to help me & be nice to me, I think because she liked me. (Maria: Why do you suppose there weren't any Christians? You were back far enough where there were a lot more Christians in the U.S. than there were even when I was in school.) Well, I was in a pretty worldly city, Miami, an American playground full of lots of wicked people & Jews!
5. There was one older boy that I used to swap books with, but we were never really close friends or anything like that. We'd talk sometimes, mostly about our interest in books & science & stuff like that. That was in Junior High. But he seemed to be more girl-crazy than anything else. The only actual friends I ever had were never school mates, they were strictly boys in our church, & there were only two of those, Lamont & Hansford. Lamont was pretty worldly himself so I didn't care too much for him. He was in a different school & we circulated in different circles, sports & girls & whatnot, so we didn't mix very well.
6. Hansford was there because he'd come with his mother from Chicago, she was a secretary, & Mother had hired her. He was older & bigger than I was. He'd been in a pretty rough town with a pretty rough crowd. He was a great source of information about all kinds of things that I had never had any experience with or anything. He was interesting, but I didn't really think so much of him. I certainly didn't admire him or consider him anything to look up to! In fact, I was a little disgusted with him. Most of the stuff he had information on was nearly all bad, about Chicago & the kind of things they did there & the crowd he'd run with & whatnot.
7. So I had no really close friends at all. I was a loner. Most of the other school kids were devils, monsters! When we started off with that movie tonight it started with this gang of kids, bullies & all that kind of stuff out of which this girl came & all the mischief they were up to & the meanness & everything else. I said, "Oh, I hope this isn't one of those movies about teen gangs or kid gangs, I hate'm! I suffered persecution at their hands when I was in school! They hated me & I hated them. I don't think I'm going to like this movie!"--But thank God it got out of that pretty soon. It was just trying to show her background, how she'd come from such a rough crowd, an orphan & leader of this teenage gang, that kind of stuff. The name of the movie was "Candleshoe". Actually that was the name of the manor, the huge mansion & all.
8. Well, it was kind of a silly movie in some ways, but it had its good points where they finally learned to live together & cooperate & help each other. It was trying to teach a lesson as far as Disney lessons go. They finally learned to be cooperative & helpful & concerned about each other instead of so selfish. And finally they all felt sorry for this poor old lady & did everything they could to help her. It was a fairly good movie, certainly better than a lot of those stupid, violent movies!
DAD'S INTERESTS AS A YOUTH!
9. I never found anybody I could really talk to so I just kept to myself, read my books, listened to my radio, did things like that. I'm sure the Lord designed it that way so I would just stay close to Him. I read a lot of good books with high morals etc. Edgar Rice Burroughs' books weren't the only books I read, I read most of Sir Walter Scott's books, & they had very high morals & lessons, & were historical, very serious books. Actually my teacher was surprised I was reading such serious historical novels & books. It's the only kind that really interested me. Even Edgar Rice Burroughs' books were science fiction & rather serious, no silly or ridiculous stuff.
10. I never got into those typical kids' books. The only thing I can remember reading in the way of kids' books was Tom Swift & his photo telephone, & Tom Swift & his radio, they were all about science & inventions & sci-fi stuff. That's what I was interested in. They didn't have "The Hardy Boys" & any of that in those days. If you wanted to read that kind of stuff you read Zane Grey's cowboy books. My dear sister loved all those books & just fed on them all the time, but I thought they were kind of silly myself. It's funny, I never seemed to read any kids' books at all, I got right straight into deep reading. Of course, you had to read the books that you were assigned in school, & do book reports & all that sort of thing, & they were nearly always something serious or historical.
11. I just can't remember reading any kids' books. I got right into things like "Tale of Two Cities". I even read "Les Miserables", books by Victor Hugo & Sir Walter Scott & that guy who wrote so many prophetic books like "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" & "Around the World in 80 Days", Jules Verne.--A man who envisioned things like that long before they ever happened. Nearly all the books I read were real serious.
12. I read things like the "The Three Musketeers". A lot of stuff I read was so deep & historical that I didn't even understand a lot of it, but I wanted to, so I tried, & I understood most of it. I'm sure it helped my vocabulary & way of expressing things. Of course I had to sit in meetings in church for hours & hours & hours to listen to all kinds of preachers & all kinds of Bible teaching & whatnot, so I got a very liberal education along that line.
13. I was very, very serious-minded, very sober. I think I was old before my time! As I've said, I've sort of lived my life backwards: I was born an old man, & I've gotten younger till now I'm more like a teenager! I suppose some people might call it senility. I'm getting childish in my old age.--Ha!--And sexier!
THIS WORLD'S FOOLISHNESS--DISGUSTING!
14. I just never gravitated to Worldly "cool" people like that. They disgusted me. As far as I was concerned they were silly & ridiculous, & even worse, they were interested in stuff that disgusted me.
15. I never found any that I felt any kind of intimate fellowship with or any that I looked up to or admired or wanted to be like or wanted to be with. I just didn't find any people like that. I was spiritual, I was a real Christian & loved the Lord, & I'm sure the Lord protected me & kept me from even getting interested in people like that. I just never found anybody who was, in a sense, on my level & interested in the same things I was interested in. Nobody read the kind of books I read, they read all kinds of silly ridiculous novels & magazines & junk & funny papers & they were even getting into System comic books then, & I just thought comic books were absolutely scum, & they were! They weren't serious. I guess I was on an adult level. In fact, I had higher & more serious interests than a lot of adults!
16. (Maria: We've read in reports from some of our Schools that some of the teen boys think that they should be that way, "cool", because they want to be well-thought-of by the girls. I'm surprised to hear it, but apparently the girls seem to like that kind of boy, so the boys try to act that way so they can be accepted by the girls.) Boy, I'll tell you, if I ever got into one of those Schools I bet I'd rip it apart! I'll tell you, they'd either straighten out or there would be no School!
17. I'm not for promoting or supporting a lot of tomfoolery! (Maria: Actually, in spite of their problems we've got quite a good bunch of teens who are getting quite serious about the Lord, & we're real proud of them, they're doing very, very well. It's just that a lot of them have bad backgrounds. But they've come a long way & they've really progressed & they have beautiful reactions & they really sincerely want to serve the Lord.)
18. What God's probably going to have to do to this generation of even our own kids in order to straighten them out & get them to sober up & settle down is put them through some real suffering! That's what it's going to take, some real serious genuine suffering, persecution or privation or whatever. That's one thing that kept me sober, we were poor, really poor, & I simply couldn't afford any ridiculous stuff! I managed to do well to wangle 25 cents a week allowance & to pick up a little here & there from what I earned myself. I went out & worked hard selling magazines & perfume & all kinds of stuff just to earn a little money myself, & I won some prizes too because I was good at it, I worked hard at it.
19. (Maria: But our kids who have been real poor seem to be even more attracted to the materialism of the System & the things that the System has, because they haven't had it.) It's funny, there wasn't anything that I saw those Worldly kids with that appealed to me. Some of them even had cars & everything when I was in Junior High, & in Senior High nearly all of them had cars. I was very very serious minded & I really knew & loved the Lord.
20. So I can't understand our kids being attracted to foolishness like that! Our children are reared to be really conscious of what's serious & important, & I can't imagine them being appealed to by foolish shallow kids, just plain Worldly kids, when they were reared to be serious & sober about things. I'm disappointed to hear that. I'm really disappointed to hear that they're attracted & appealed to by that kind of silly foolish shallow Worldly kids.
MORE ON DAD'S TEEN INTERESTS!
21. I was very serious-minded, very spiritually-minded & interested in really deep serious things, history & science. I just didn't fit! Nobody liked me (except teachers) & I didn't like them either! The only thing I liked was science & reading & history, & I was excellent in math, the top of my class in geometry. I took all those things soberly & seriously & really studied, & made top grades. I was on the Honour Roll all through Junior High & High School, I never missed the Honour Roll, ever, not one month, not one report card, I was always on it!
22. So I virtually never had to take exams, because if you made high grades & were on the Honour Roll, you didn't have to take the finals, so I was tickled pink. I worked hard. I liked my studies, I really liked'm! I really took them seriously & worked hard at it. My teachers all adored me, of course, because I was about the only student in their classes who took their education seriously & really worked hard at it & made good grades & knew all the answers.
23. I was like somebody from another World! I was like an alien, & they all knew it, & they treated me like it! (Maria: Well, you're definitely an exception, Honey, even amongst Christians, even amongst our Family. You were the one who started the Revolution. But there aren't very many people like you.) Those Worldly people either disgusted me or just plain made me angry, they were so despicable & so sickening & silly & foolish & shallow! They were like little children compared to me.
24. It's like I was born old, I mean it! I think I was really more like an adult. In fact, I was even more serious than most of the adults! The Lord was really watching over me, I'm sure, & really keeping my mind pure & my thoughts idealistic. That's why I think I could never get mixed up with girls in those days. I really was attracted to them & wanted them, needed sex, but I had such high ideals I would never have gotten involved with a girl that I wasn't going to marry!
25. (Maria: But you weren't so girl-crazy that you couldn't think of anything else but girls all the time, were you?--Like some of our kids are now.) Oh goodness no! Honey, I was involved, I was completely absorbed in my studies & in reading & in wanting to know about the World, I mean History, the serious World. If you could imagine, at 12 years old I was reading the newspapers through, serious news, & keeping a scrapbook of important news items. Now we have the WND, thank the Lord, if any of our teens are interested. (Maria: You were unusual.) Yes, I was. One indication of it is that I had such an abnormally high IQ (178), I'm sure it was just the Lord, my parentage & whatnot!
26. (Prays:) Well, Lord, You know all about it. We tried to do the best we could with them to teach them to know & love You & follow You, & know that only one thing in life is important, & that's to witness & win souls & serve Thee! And if we didn't do a good job of it & they haven't learned it, if that's not their main goal in life, then we're sorry, but at least we tried. So I don't know if we can take the blame or not if they don't turn out as good as we hoped. We thought they were better, Lord, but maybe we were expecting too much. All I can say is we've done what we could. If they don't appreciate it & they don't follow it, they're of the age of decision, & that's their funeral. In Jesus' name.
27. I'm sorry, I guess I never had very much sympathy for backsliders. My feeling has always been love it or leave it! So if they don't love it, they might as well leave it as far as I'm concerned. (Maria: Well, I wouldn't be too hard on them yet until we really give them a chance. Most of them are displaying some very good qualities, like wanting to fellowship & be with their parents & Shepherds more than just fooling around all the time with the kids who try to be "cool". There are a few little faults & weaknesses that some of them have, but I think that they'll pull out of it & they'll come through. According to the Word, "When they are older they won't depart from it".) Amen, but that doesn't mean they won't depart when they're young.
IN THE WORLD BUT NOT OF THE WORLD!
28. Well, I must say I was in my middle & late 40's before I really went out sort of investigating the World & sampling the World a little bit to see what it was all about--when I was on the road for television. It was my first chance to ever explore the World at all & see what it was like.--Movies, nightclubs, women. And personally, it all still pretty much disgusted me & I knew I didn't belong. I never ever felt like I was a part of it at all, I always felt like I was on the outside looking in, & what I saw was pretty sickening. (Maria: According to the commandment to "Be not conformed to this World!", & "Be not yoked with unbelievers".--Rom.12:2, 2Cor.6:14-17)
29. I was really just more or less exploring & sampling to see what it was like. And as far as it ever actually appealing to me as being a part of it, I knew where I belonged, & I never cared to be a part of it at all!--Not at all! I always felt like a stranger, always knew I was a stranger just looking in on it from the outside. I was just more or less exploring it to see what it was like. Maybe that's what some of our teens are doing. Maybe they're just curious.
30. Thank God for you, Sweetheart! Thank God He gave me a woman who was so spiritual & knows & loves the Lord, & wants me to be that way too! (Maria: Amen, Honey, I'm so glad you are.) You helped me to become what I am, Honey, or I never would have made it without you. (Maria: TYL! It's just the Lord, Honey.)
31. I got to try enough jobs in the System that I knew that wasn't where it's at. As far as work & System jobs were concerned, I knew I didn't belong in it. But its people never appealed to me either, never! So I just can't understand why they would appeal to our kids. (Maria: Well, maybe it's just momentarily, initially, just to see what it is, where it's not.)
32. It's a good thing I don't go to one of those Schools, I'm afraid I'd tear it up, I wouldn't put up with any foolishness! (Maria: Well, there's really not too much foolishness, they're doing quite well.) They've done beautifully on some things, I'm real proud of them. When it comes to the showdown, they come through. (Maria: They do, & they write some beautiful reactions. In general our teens are getting closer to the Lord all the time, they're really progressing. I'm encouraged with them & I think everybody is. Even visiting Family members are quite impressed by them & their spiritual progress, so I think our Schools have borne good fruit.)
33. PTL! TYJ! TYL! Help our kids, Lord! Help them to know what's right, Lord. Now it's up to them to make their own decisions to do what's right. They know what's right, we've taught them, but at their age we can't make'm. They've gotta choose it themselves. They might do a little experimenting or dabbling, investigating out of curiosity, but I think they'll come home in the long run. (Maria: And see where it's not at.) They'll know who's right.
34. Maybe some of our teens are simply curious to find out about other kids, & what makes them tick. Maybe they've actually got sympathy for the sinner. Jesus went down amongst the publicans & the harlots & the drunks & the sinners. The Scribes & Pharisees didn't like it either, that He was hobnobbing with the worst elements, but it was because He loved them & wanted to save them & help them, not because He wanted to be like them. They appealed to Him because they needed Him & He wanted to save them, so maybe that's why some of our kids are attracted to others with those kinds of problems. Let's hope so.
MAMA'S LOVE FOR DAD,& A TIP FOR ALL WIVES!
35. Sometimes I think you love me too much, Honey! You spoil me by loving me too much. You probably ought to scold me more like Eve did & tell me off like she did, maybe it would do me good. About all it did, though, was discourage me.
36. (Maria: Well, I read an article that says that you should never try to change your husband. You're bound to tell him where he's erring, but just tell him so he understands, but then drop it if he doesn't do anything about it. Do not try to change him any more than that. Do not try to do anything to nag him or keep after him or force him or condemn him. Just don't try to force him to change. It says you'll never succeed anyway, he'll only do it because he wants to if he's going to do it, not because you try to change him. It says it's no good anyway & you're going to just spoil your marriage & make yourself & him unhappy & you're not going to accomplish it in the long run, so just don't try it!)
37. I guess that's what was wrong with me & Eve, I tried to change her. I didn't like the way she was so I tried to force her to change. And she tried to do the same with me. (Maria: The author says no matter how bad he is, no matter what he does, don't try to change him, except to love him & pray for him.--Because only the Lord can change him, & cause him to want to change.) I'm glad you heeded her advice, Honey. (Maria: Well, Honey, I don't have to try to change you, you're so wonderful!) Honey, you know how bad I am, how could you say that? You know my faults. Oh Jesus help us!
38. Help our teens, Lord!--And help David, we know he knows what's right, & Techi does too. We believe in the long run that they're going to make the right choices, Lord, because they know what's right. (Maria: Amen, I believe that, so don't worry.) I don't think they're ever going to leave home in a sense because of bitterness or resentfulness against us, because I don't think we've been too hard on them, I don't think we forced them. I think they know we love them & we've tried to do our best with them.
DAD'S RELATIONSHIPS WITH GIRLS AS A TEEN!--Mother Eve Story!
39. When I was a teen, I thought about girls & I looked at them. (Maria: But you didn't have your mind on them all the time, right?) I had my mind on my work, my studies & serious thoughts about the future & what I was going to be, what I was going to do.
40. Of course, when I was old enough to be in Senior High School, I knew I had to be in the Lord's Work because I was very serious about the Lord at that time, & thought, of course, I was going to be a preacher or a pastor. I didn't think I had what it took to be an evangelist, I wasn't that emotional or that flashy, but I thought maybe I could at least be a teacher. And I was a pretty good teacher even then, I taught Sunday school classes & whatnot. My teachers at school all thought I was certainly going to be a teacher, & I took it seriously.
41. By the time I was 18, I was in fulltime work driving my Mother & leading the singing & teaching children's groups & lecturing on my slides & stuff like that. I was in fulltime service for the Lord & all we needed was a pianist, which we figured we could roll into one with a wife! So it was all cut out, that's what I expected to be & that's what finally happened.
42. Mother didn't care much for Eve, & I can understand why now. She was dirty & sloppy & couldn't cook or keep house. She'd been reared a spoiled little rich kid & her parents were really wealthy & she'd never been taught to do anything around the house, they had servants & that sort of thing. So the poor little girl just didn't know how! Her mother was dirty too. My Mother got into their kitchen one day in their big mansion there in Louisville & started trying to clean it up & Eve's father said to her, "Forget it, it's been that way for 30 years!" He'd apparently just given up too.
43. My Mother was immaculate, she was absolutely meticulous when it came to keeping house & cooking & how things looked & that sort of thing, fastidious! So was my Father! He was just absolutely impeccable! So Eve just didn't fit my family at all! And my Mother & Father were both disgusted with her within the first week home when she came to live with us.
44. And poor Eve, she wound up coming to me & weeping most of the time, "Your Mother's so mean to me & she fusses at me & I can't do anything right!" Well, I can sympathise with her a little bit now when you think how a spoiled little rich kid who never knew how to cook or keep house or anything suddenly landed with a mother & father-in-law, two top housekeepers & almost the cleanest people on Earth! So she was really in a stew!
45. But anyhow, at least she could play the piano & she was pretty spiritual & I guess she did love me. Of course, my Mother kept trying to sour it all the time, I don't know what she expected to do about it, but I think she finally gave up when we started having babies. She saw that there was no point in it being possible to break up once we had children.
46. Anyhow, PTL! It was all experience, chalk it up to experience, & I had a lot of good experience, the school of hard knocks, along with a little smattering of college here & there which only disgusted me in that kind of so-called Christian education. I was already doing what they were hardly even talking about! I just woke up & said, "What am I doing here? I'm already in the Lord's Work! What is all this junk they're teaching me? What good is that going to do?" If I was going to be a pastor or a teacher, some of it would have been useful, & it's all come in handy somehow, some way, somewhere at sometime.
47. But when I was a young teen, I was mostly absorbed in my studies & in reading books, learning, educating myself, really wanting to know. I had a great thirst for knowledge, & I read & read, I just read all the time! I didn't have any time to fiddle around even worrying about girls or hardly thinking about them. There weren't any girls that had anything to do with me anyhow, & I didn't care much about them, they were all a bunch of silly little nitwits as far as I was concerned!
48. (Maria: Well maybe if you'd had spiritual girls around you...) Yes, I might have been interested! (Maria: It would have been a lot more distracting!) Especially sleeping in the same School with them, living as closely & intimately as the Family does, I'm sure I would have been a good deal more interested in girls! They're quite interest-absorbing! (Maria: Our girls are really sweet.) Oh, I think I would've been crazy about our girls, in fact I am! It's a good thing we don't have a house full of them or I might be pretty absorbed! I have enough trouble with the ones that are here! It's a good thing I have a lot of work to do!
49. I think the best thing in the World for young teen boys is to have so much work to do & keep them so busy they don't have so much time to be fiddling around about girls! Maybe they need a reading course of books that they've got to finish. (Maria: We have MO Letters, but the System books just haven't proven to be worthwhile.) All right, we've got plenty of books, we've got oodles of MO Letters. Why don't we put them on a reading schedule to read them all!
50. As a teen I was serious-minded. I'm sure the Lord made me that way & kept me that way. As an older teen, when I finally got to Bible college & found they were studying everything else but the Bible, I got thoroughly fed up. Those Bible colleges were shallow & foolish & silly & inane & ridiculous & unimportant. I finally picked up & walked out, disgusted with it all.
51. I just wanted to get out in the Lord's Work, I wanted to be a missionary, I wanted to be an evangelist, I wanted to do something for the Lord & win souls! I did that for years in the churches with my Mother until I got fed up with them! They were silly & ridiculous too, foolish & not serious about the job! So when I bumped into Fred I thought, "That's it! This guy wants to really witness & win souls & win the World! That's what I want! That's the only thing that's important!" So that's where we went. And I don't think I've stopped since!
52. Every now & then there was a girl that was right with us in the same home or church or whatever, & by the time I was 19 I got involved with Dolores, & then the Kemper girls, & then after that, we went from church to church, & in almost every church there was some girl that was after me. But my Mother kept a very close watch & she made sure I didn't get interested or involved with any girl that wouldn't fit her choice & her pattern. I wasn't hardly ever allowed to go out alone with any girl. (Maria: Even when you were 19?) Then I was allowed to go out with the ones that my Mother was interested in, like the Kempers.
53. I just sort of got involved with Dolores because she was the daughter of the most prominent wealthiest members of our church, the head of the official board, the Saters, great supporters etc. So of course I sort of got involved with her. (Maria: And how old was she?) Well, it's funny, actually when I first got involved with her, I just looked on her as a little girl. I was 14, we were visiting her parents in Pennsylvania & she was only 8, so you can imagine. (Maria: So when you were 19 & you were thinking you were going to marry her, she was 6 years younger.) Sometimes I was five years older, sometimes I was six years older. But she was 14 then. (Maria: And you wanted to marry her right then?) She was sexually mature, she had quite well-developed breasts & everything.--Of course, I never saw them except in a bathing suit.
54. Anyway, I was allowed to go out with her on dates when I was 18 & 19. And we'd wind up in the car doing some cuddling & kissing but nothing serious, just hugging & kissing. We never thought of putting our hands on any sexual parts or anything like that in those days. I would sort of accidentally on purpose touch her breasts once in awhile while I was hugging her, but it was strictly not honourable.
55. So there was no such thing as actual petting or anything, it was all strictly above board. (Maria: Deep kissing?) No, no. Well, I think finally in the final stages when we were practically engaged to get married we did get to do some deep kissing. We never got around to any actual sex because we were both very very conservative, & I think scared to death! My parents were extremely conservative & of course we weren't supposed to do anything like that.
56. As far as I was concerned, there was no place else for me except in the Lord's Work, & whoever I finally chose had to be very spiritual & a pianist for my singing & my job & my Mother.
57. At David's age (13) I was too busy to even think very much about girls. (Maria: You probably would have thought of them if you were in a situation like many of our teens are, in a Family School or Home with a whole bunch of them living with you all the time!) Yes, I'm sure I would have! But when I was his age I was living in L.P. Lehman's home going to that business college, & he had a daughter who was probably about ten, & I thought she was just a child & I wasn't even interested. Anyhow, she was a spoiled little rich kid that I didn't care much for.
58. Believe it or not, at that age I was more interested in Mary Lou, my Mother's secretary! I was always getting interested in older girls, older women, mature women.--And Mary Francis Anderson, my Mother's other secretary. Those were the kind I admired, the older, serious-minded really talented women. The young girls were like little children to me, they were silly little kids. It was the older women that appealed to me, believe it or not. Of course, they were always interested in older men!
59. Well, the Lord apparently had His way, He kept me all those years from getting too deeply involved & making a serious mistake. I think I did pretty well to hold off till I was 25, considering I was ready to get married at 19! I bumped into a lot of girls in our travels with my Mother, but it was just a matter of an afternoon ride or something like that, go to a park, have a picnic, usually with other people with us.
60. They tried to get me interested in quite a few in our many travels, but there just never seemed to be anybody that fit exactly my ideal. Ruth Light was very sweet & spiritual & could play the piano, & Mother let me take her out to an amusement park one afternoon. I always thought amusement parks were pretty ridiculous too, but at least it was a place to go.
61. Dolores was quite thrilled when I took her to the park when she was 8 years old. I think our mothers were trying to get rid of us somehow so they let us go to this park. I was kind to her like I would be to a little child, sort of like I was taking care of her. But I noticed she had that adoring calf-eyed look. I figured she probably was crazy about me, but I wasn't the least bit interested in her, I thought she was just a little child. I was at that time busily going clear through all of Sir Walter Scott's big tomes.
62. That's the way it was with me, I was just more interested in more serious things, & was sober & old before my time. I'm sure the Lord kept me that way, much more interested in serious things, studies, books, reading, reading the newspaper etc. (Maria: Well, even I was much more spiritual when I was that age than I think most of our Family teens are. I don't know why.) Well, when you're reared in a preacher's home like you were, you're inclined to be pretty spiritual. You're involved in all of their work & you feel the burden of their responsibilities & you want to help them, & I'm sure that's one reason why.
WHY CONFORM TO THE WICKED WORLD?
63. But what I can't understand is, that's the way our kids in the Family are supposed to have been reared, in a way. So for them to suddenly fly off & be appealed to by the World & other Worldly kids, I expected them to be sort of disgusted with all that, really. I am disappointed if our Family teens are not disgusted when they see how Worldly kids are. (Maria: How shallow & sort of foolish they are.) I can't understand at all why our teens would be attracted to other teens who are so Worldly! (Maria: Maybe because they think the girls like that kind of boy.)
64. Honey, my friend Lamont was about as handsome as you can get, & had girls chasing after him all the time, & as far as I was concerned, that didn't make me like Lamont any more, in fact it actually made me more disgusted! I sort of envied the fact that the girls liked him, but it didn't make me want to be like Lamont in the least way!--Because Lamont was foolish, shallow, not really serious about his studies, not really concerned about the Lord's Work, nothing! As a teen, that side of Lamont never appealed to me a bit! It just disgusted me!
DAD'S SAMPLE AS A TEEN!
65. I think the closest I came to a situation at all like our Schools where I was surrounded with good teens, Christian teens, was when I became the Youth Director of our Church in Miami at the Church of the Open Door, & we had about a dozen teenagers. Of course, the girls were all crazy about me but I really kept my distance from all of them except Dolores, because I think my Mother & her Mother encouraged that. (Maria: How old were you then?) 18 & 19, she was 14 & 15. I was about 5 years older than she was.
66. But I was very sober & serious-minded at that time about leading those young people & talking about the Lord & getting them to sober up & be serious about the Lord & His work, & to help support this missionary we had, Kovak, a handsome young Russian fellow amongst the Russians of Alaska that Peter Dyneka had dug up. So we pledged $5 a month to support him, & that was a lot of money then.
67. I was real serious then & I got baptised with the Holy Spirit at that time. That's when I was in that car wreck. I was praying, "Lord, I wish there was something I could do to sober these kids up & make them more serious!"--& we completely turned over! We were all banged up but nobody was really seriously hurt, which was a miracle! But boy, it sure sobered them up in a hurry & at the next Young People's Meeting they really were sober & serious & listened!
68. But I was always so far above & beyond those Worldly Christian teens! I was never ever in a situation where I was on their level, not even in school. That's just the facts! And apparently that's the way the Lord wanted it to be & kept me, so I never got involved. I was their leader, superior, even though I was more or less their own age. I guess the Lord just did it to keep me from getting too involved.
69. I can't remember any boy that I wanted to be like or wanted to follow, ever, never! Lamont usually disgusted me & so did Hansford, & none of the Worldly kids attracted me, nobody! I had a Sunday School teacher that I admired, but I'd been in the Lord's Work with my folks so long, I knew more about the Bible than he did, poor fellow! I guess that's why my Father finally gave me his class. I was one of his boys, & when he didn't show up, my Dad turned around & gave me the class! That's just the way it was!
70. So I guess I'm just sort of an alien from another World! (Maria: That's why the Lord chose you to start the Revolution.) Well, I don't know, I had so little in common with the people that I revoluted, it's a wonder I ever appealed to them at all! It was just the Lord! (Maria: Well, you're always way out there in front & you have to be.) I'd never been a hippie, I'd never taken drugs, I'd never been a drunk, I'd never been with girls, I'd never even been a normal kid at all! I guess the Lord just had to take somebody from Outer Space to come in like an alien to lead them, because that's surely what I was!
71. (Maria: Although we would like them to, I guess we can't really expect our teens to be exactly like you, but I think they should as much as possible work toward your standard of dedication & love for the Lord & desire to do His Work.) And I guess you can't really expect me to understand them or why our Family kids would be appealed to by Worldly people, because I was never appealed to by that. The only people who inspired me were famous men, great men. My own Mother & Father were my greatest inspiration, as well as my Grandfather. I greatly admired them & really knew they were great people & great Christians, & I really loved & admired them. They're the only ones I really wanted to be like.
72. I guess you were pretty much the same way, reared in a Christian home, by Christian parents. (Maria: I was pretty spiritual, but I didn't feel things as strongly as you did. I wasn't an exceptional child, as you were. I just didn't care for those Worldly kids that much & didn't feel much in common with them, but I don't remember feeling it to that extreme. I just didn't belong so much with them & didn't fit in so much with them. I was pretty isolated too.--Just because I was a preacher's daughter & a Christian.)
73. So I guess I'm not really the one to ask. I never was like that & that sort of thing never really appealed to me. I wanted women & I wanted sex, but when it came to the showdown of who I had to have it with, I didn't care that much for them!--Till you came along, Honey!
74. I can't remember Eve even appealing very much to me sexually till we really got in bed naked together. Even then we couldn't even do it for a couple of weeks! And then she always pretended like she didn't like it or resented it & felt like it was a sin & beneath her, & that I was too sexy & carnal & fleshly, & she really had contempt for my sexiness, sort of always felt herself superior spiritually. (Maria: That's one thing, I never felt superior to you, Honey. I'll never even hardly come up to your kneecap!) Honey, ILY! You're just what the Lord knew I needed.
75. I guess I'm not going to be any help in this situation with our teens being appealed to by the wrong kind of kids or company. I just can't understand our young people even liking or liking to even talk to people like that. (Maria: Well, we hope that, as time goes on, they'll mature spiritually. But our kids in general, the teens in our Schools, seem to be a good bunch & are really doing well.)
DAD & MAMA'S LOVE FOR EACH OTHER!
76. Honey, if you want to know the truth about the matter, I never had a friend all my life until you came along! (Maria: Oh Honey, that's so sweet!) I never really felt anything in common with anybody till you came along. (Maria: Honey, that's so precious!) I could never even be myself around Eve because she was so holier-than-thou & self-righteous that she always looked down on me with contempt for my lack of spirituality & because I wasn't as holy as she was, didn't pray & memorise Scripture like she did, & so I finally gave up on that.
77. She didn't even begin to understand me! And finally, I didn't like her either because of her snootiness & contempt for me, so she was no friend. At first I thought she was going to be, but we soon differed, sad to say. You're the only one that has stuck! (Maria: Oh, TYL! I'm so glad we're friends, Honey!) And that's only because you like me in spite of me. (Maria: Sweetheart, I don't know what I don't like about you!) Well, we won't go into that, Honey!
78. (Maria: They say each mate should make a list of what they don't like in each other, & then exchange lists & agree to work on those things. But when I try to think about what I wouldn't like in you, I can't think of anything, because you wouldn't be you, you wouldn't be a revolutionary if you weren't the way you are!)
TO BACKSLIDE OR STAY TRUE--THE CHOICE IS UP TO YOU!
79. Well, all I can say is that after all those years of training & being taught the nurture & admonition of the Lord & trained up in the way they should go, I will certainly be very greatly disappointed to find out that many of our kids are being appealed to by anything else or anybody else that's not according to our Family standard & ideals. (Maria: Well, they might backslide a little, but like "train up a child in the way he shall go" says, I think eventually they'll see the error of their ways & realise that's not what they should do & that's not in the plan. The Enemy really fights our kids.)
80. There's only one time I ever really backslid out of the Lord's Work, & that's when I let them take me into the Army.--Only one time. And the Lord even worked that out for good in the long run. But I really landed in Hell, & I knew it was Hell & I knew it wasn't where I belonged! I knew the only thing to do was to try to get out of there, & I did, thank the Lord, with the Lord's help! And I was never tempted to go back to the World again or its work, jobs or anything.
81. I started to get a job one Summer between teaching years with the Federal Government as an unemployment counsellor, & I got the job pretty easily, right away, but I never spent a day at work because the Lord told me so distinctly to leave, gave me that Scripture, "Forsake all, give what thou hast to the poor & come follow Me!"--Mk.10:21. I was scared to death to go to that job & I had to phone them & tell them I was sorry I couldn't make it. I hated to disappoint them, but it would have been worse to disappoint the Lord!
82. Well, if our teens don't follow the Lord & the Word, of course, I'll be disappointed. (Maria: I think in the long run everything will work out & they will.) If they get appealed to by anything less, I will certainly be disappointed in them. (Maria: Of course, the Enemy really really fights them. Probably the Enemy fights our kids in the Family even more than he fought us because time's so short & they're going to be the real leaders of the Endtime, the army of the End. They probably fight even worse battles. So there are a lot of temptations along the way, but I think they'll come out all right in the end.)
83. Well, I have said that the final acid test of our whole system & Family is if we can keep our teenagers, because that's where nearly all others have failed. And if we don't, if it doesn't work, about all I can say is at least we did well getting this far! (Maria: We haven't lost very many yet.) So far we're keeping them, TTL!
84. How about you?--Are you going to stay faithful & true to the Lord & His Work, the "high calling of God in Christ Jesus"?--"Be thou faithful unto death, & I will give thee a crown of Life!"--Phil.3:14; Rev.2:10.--Amen? GBY!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
